Alex Williams 2D Animation Reel

Recently I've been digging around online to find HD copies of some of the best shots I have done on various 2D animated feature films over the years (my existing 2D animation demo reels were of doubtful quality, with low resolution images). Above is a selection of my best work on films from "Roger Rabbit" in the 80s and 90s all the way through "Thief and The Cobbler", "Iron Giant" and "Sinbad" (my last 2d feature) in the early 2000s.  Edit by Miguel Teixeira, music by Pixabay.  All in full HD. 

What I Learned on "Quest For Camelot"

Death of Ruber by Alex Williams (FX by Michael Gagne)

In the summer of 1996, I started work as an animator at Warner Bros. Feature Animation on Quest for Camelot, directed by Frederik Du Chau. 

It was an exciting time — Warner Bros. was building its feature animation division, hoping to rival Disney animation, and was recruiting artists from all over the world (including me) to join its team. 

Animating "Ruber" on "Quest For Camelot"

One of my YouTube subscribers recently asked me to talk about what it was like animating "Ruber" on "Quest For Camelot".  I worked on "Ruber" on "Quest" back in the late 1990s, when the animation industry was booming, and there was a lot of optimism about the future of 2D animation. "Quest" was a great experience for me; I got to be a lead animator on the villain, which was a big role, and a really fun one to do. Plus, I got to work with Gary Oldman, and I was even invited to draw him delivering the lines in the recording booth - drawings which I was later able to use for key poses in the scenes I animated.

Chuck Jones Animation Tutorial

In this excellent 13 minute animation tutorial, actor and director Ron Howard introduces the work of animation legend Chuck Jones, the creative master behing the Road Runner and Bugs Bunny. There are other great voices here too - such as Disney animation stars Glen Keane and Eric Goldberg (the latter the author of the excellent "Character Animation Crash Course" - one of the books on our rstudent eading list).  The video is a great introduction to the basic principles of animation, such as anticipation, squash and stretch, secondary action and overlapping action. We're recommending it to all our students.

All Aboard the Harry Potter Studio Tour

Harry Potter Tour

I recently took the Harry Potter Studio Tour at Leavesden, visiting the 80-hectare studio complex which was used for filming the Harry Potter series of films. The tour might sound like a three hour trivia odyssey for Potter fans, but in fact it turned out to be as good an introduction to the art, craft and science of visual effects film-making as almost any amount of classroom instruction - and far more fun.

Chuck Jones - Extremes and In-Betweens

Above is a wonderful documentary about the legendary Warner Bros animation director Chuck Jones. Chuck died a few years back but his influence on our medium is immense. His comic timing is hard to beat, and the characters he helped to create - Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd and Daffy Duck - still endure today.  Watch this video not just for a better understanding of the history of animation but also to see a great film-maker reveal his secrets. The sections where Chuck talks about how he timed out the jokes to the musical score are especially fascinating. Chuck Jones was a great animator, a great director, and a great comedian.

Animation and The Mind - The Neuroscience of Animation

Your brain, but animated

At this year's SAS (Society of Animation Studies) conference in Toronto, a number of presentations focused on the subject of Animation and the Mind - The Neuroscience of Animation. This field of research tries to look at animation from a neuroscientific point of view, asking what it is about the design and structure of our brains that influences how we watch and enjoy animation.